(Canceled) The Domino Effect: A Mother Seies Retelling
by ThereIsNoDoggo
Summary: An ongoing retelling of the entire Mother/Earthbound series. Includes the fan made Mother: Cognitive Dissonance and possibly Mother 4. Currently on indefinite hiatus, and it’ll probably stay that way.
1. Beginnings

In the distant future there is a boy named Lucas, a boy who would go through trial and tribulation to save the world from total devastation.

This is not his story.

Rather, this is the story of the events leading up to Lucas' adventure, the events that started a chain reaction of further events which would all lead up to the fall of the Pig King. Call it what you will, but for now, let's call it a domino effect.

This is the story of a young boy named Ninten…

Wait, Ninten? What kind of name is that? Couldn't they have chosen something cooler, like Ken? Er, never mind, let us continue.

The year is 198X, our story takes place in the town of Podunk, a fairly small town in the country of Eagleland. While Eagleland as a whole is home to many landmarks, Podunk on its own isn't much to write home about. Podunk is a fairly small town, with a few houses, some small businesses, and is mainly stitched together by dirt roads. To Ninten however, this was home, and what most towns probably looked like in his mind, then again most of his thoughts were fairly scrambled, it's a mystery as to how the boy became as powerful as he did, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Ninten, much like the town he lived in, wasn't exactly spectacular in anyway, he most commonly dawned a red baseball cap, a red, white, and blue striped t-shirt, jean shorts, a red scarf, and a pair red sneakers. As for his physical features, well he could be probably fit in with any generic, white, middle-class family. He had fairly clear skin, black hair, and the kind of look on his face that says "I'm content with my current life, for the most part."

Currently, Ninten is on his way home from school, which unluckily for him is another town over, he's not exactly bothered by it however. Pointless details aside, Ninten is currently opening the front door to his house. "I'm home!" he calls out. Ninten's mother can be heard from the kitchen replying, "Welcome home sweetie, now hurry up and come to dinner!" "At least let take off the backpack first!" Ninten replies. As Ninten heads upstairs to his room, he is stopped by his two younger sisters Minnie and Mimmie, both identical twins. Both Minnie and Mimmie sported plain white shirts and orange and purple overalls and pants respectively, to match their hair color, both also sported pairs of pony tails. "Hurry up big bro!" they cry in unison. "Okay, okay, jeez, I just got home!" Ninten replies.

As Ninten enters his room, he notices something peculiar, a blue lamps with a white shade, in the middle of the room, as opposed to where it would normally reside, that being next to his bed. Aside from that everything else remains the same, the bed, the dresser, even the awkwardly placed chair, which resides next the lamp's current location. Choosing to ignore it for now, Ninten throws his backpack onto his bed and runs downstairs to the kitchen.

"Hey mom, did you move the furniture in my room?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"Er, no reason."

"(I think I'm losing it.)" Ninten thinks to himself.

As Ninten sits down at the table, his mother heads back to the stovetop to make sure nothing is burning. "So how was school?" she asks. "Eh, same old, same old," Ninten replies, "although our history teacher decided to go on a rant about psychics for most of the class." Minnie and Mimmie, who are already at the table, begin to shudder in fear. "Psychics are scary!" they cry in unison. "I heard the man on the TV say that psychics might take over the world!" Minnie adds. Mimmie begins to start crying loudly. "Oh hush Minnie, you're scaring your sister. Whatever you've heard on TV isn't going to happen, so long as our police force has anything to say about it!" the mother yells out. "Oh come on mom, you can't seriously think all psychics are bad." Ninten replies.

"Oh I know that dear, but chances are most people with that kind of power can and will misuse it."

"Mom?"

"Yes, Ninten?"

"What if I had psychic powers?"

"Well I'd make damn sure you behave and never use your powers for anything bad!"

"Big brother, are you psychic?" Minnie and Mimmie interject.

"What, no, I'm just asking mom what she would do if I was psychic."

"Ohhhhhhh, okay," Minnie and Mimmie call in unison.

"Well enough of this psychic talk," the mother interjects, "I hope your hungry Ninten, I made your favorite, prime ribs!" "Oh boy!" Ninten calls out. "Hey don't start getting too excited," the mother calls out, "make sure you savor that food, it's not like we get to eat this stuff every day. That goes for you girls as well!" "Okay mommy!" the sisters say in unison. After a bit of ranting, it seems the family is finally ready to start eating, and that's exactly what they do.

"Well I'm done here, I'll be in my room studying." Ninten announces. Ninten proceeds to leave the kitchen and head to his room, not before he's stopped by Minnie and Mimmie. "Wait big bro," the sisters call, "let's play a game!" "I can't, I gotta study for a test coming up." Ninten replies. "But it's Friday, you can just study tomorrow!" Mimmie cries. "Come on big bro, play with us!" Minnie cries as she begins tugging on Ninten's shirt. It doesn't take long for Ninten to cave in, "Ugh, fine, I'll play with you two." He replies. "Yay!" the sisters yell.

Minnie and Mimmie proceed to drag Ninten into Mimmie's room, as she typically hoards all of the toys in her drawer. "So what did you two have in mind?" Ninten asks. "We're gonna play dollies!" the sisters call in unison.

"(Why did I agree to this?)"

Allow me to fast forward a bit, as if I were to tell you all the details, you'd probably be out like a light.

"Can I go now?" Ninten asks.

"No way, not until you start passing me the tea kettle!" Minnie yells.

"Sis, it's 9 o'clock already, I'm tired."

"Oh yeah, well how come mom hasn't come in and said it's our bed time?"

Speak of the devil and he shall appear, or she this case.

The mother proceeds to barge through the door and call, "Kids, it's time for you to scoot off to bed!"

"(Thank god.)" Ninten thinks to himself.

As the mother leaves, Ninten leaves as well, but before he can head out the door, his sisters call out to him. "Wait, big bro! You'll play with us tomorrow, right?" Not wanting to disappoint his sisters Ninten says, "Er, sure, I guess." "Yay!" the sisters call out. During their moment of triumph, Ninten silently heads out the door, down the hall, and to his room. Before Ninten can even make it to his bed, he decides to simply collapse on couch out of pure exhaustion, "Well today was certainly something." he says to himself. As his thoughts on what tomorrow may hold begin to fade, Ninten falls into a deep sleep.

None of his predictions on tomorrow would come close to what would actually happen.


	2. When Lamps Attack

"(Ugh, how long was I out?)"

Ninten awakes the next morning with a throbbing headache. For a moment everything seems like a blur, but once his vision clears he begins to remember the events that transpired the previous day. "That's the last time I agree to do anything with my sisters." Ninten says to himself as he rises from his chair.

Ninten heads for the door, but before he can make it, he hears a loud scraping noise, when he turns around, he notices his lamp has moved slightly. Choosing to ignore it, Ninten continues to the door, but his voyage is short lived however, as before he even realizes it, his own lamp jumps in front of him and blocks the door.

"What the hell!?"

Before Ninten can even try to convince himself he's still asleep, his lamp rises from the ground and shoves its pole into Ninten's gut. Ninten falls to the ground, the pain in his stomach managing to fully awake him. Before the lamp can land another blow on him, Ninten rolls out of the way and proceeds to lift himself up with the armrest on his chair. The lamp still hovers above the ground and begins to move erratically from left to right.

"Well this is something I didn't expect to be doing today." Ninten says to himself, humor often calms him down in stressful situations. Ninten attempts to assess the situation and tries to come up with a solution. Not seeing a better option, Ninten runs up to the lamp and grabs the poll, attempting to pin it to the ground. Surprisingly enough, Ninten manages to hold his lamp down with little effort, it's at this moment Ninten realizes he didn't even know what he would do if his plan worked. Once the lamp under him begins to shake, Ninten quickly starts unscrewing the lightbulb under the shade, unsure of what else to do. Once the deed has been done, Ninten rolls the lightbulb to the other side of the room, being careful not to break it. Once the lamp and its lightbulb are separated, the lamp stops shaking, just as suddenly as it started.

"Holy shit that actually worked." Ninten says to himself.

Ninten rises up from the ground, believing his crisis to be over, until the whole house starts shaking that is. "What!? An earthquake!?" Ninten exclaims. Before Ninten can even think of what to do, he hears his sisters screaming from across the hall. "Minnie! Mimmie! Are you okay?" Ninten's only response is more screams. Fearing for the lives of his sisters, Ninten barges out the door and into the closest room, being Minnie's room, nearly triggering an asthma attack. Ninten enters the room to be greeted with the sight of Minnie cowering in the corner, another lamp slowly circling around the center of the room, and violently shaking furniture.

After he catches his breath, Ninten tackles the lamp to the ground, and immediately starts to unscrew the lightbulb, once again rolling it to the wall, being careful not to break it. As expected, the lamp stops moving, only shaking because of the earthquake.

"Minnie, are you okay?"

"Big bro, I'm scared!"

"Look, just stay here, I'm gonna check on Mimmie, okay?"

"Okay…"

Ninten barges out of the room and the into the next one, being Mimmie's. The sight inside he's greeted to is nearly the same as the previous room, only this time there's a baby doll, with no hair or clothes what so ever, worn from years of use. The doll floats in the middle of the room, insisting on staying in one spot. Ninten approaches the doll slowly, attempting not to provoke it. The doll floats at an equal level to Ninten's head, Ninten begins to circle around the doll, its head constantly turning to face him. Suddenly, Ninten throws a punch, but the doll dodges quickly and retaliates by throwing itself at Ninten's face, knocking him to the ground. Before Ninten can fully rise up, the doll charges at him with full force. Ninten is able to narrowly avoid the attack, and the doll crashes to the ground, bouncing forward a bit before fully stopping. Seeing his chance, Ninten quickly reaches for the doll, grabs it, and holds it up in his left hand. Ninten grabs the head of the doll with his right hand and forcibly tears off the head of the doll. In exhaustion, Ninten drops the doll and its head to the ground, quickly grabbing his inhaler from his pocket afterwards. After catching his breath Ninten finally notices that the doll has seemingly stopped moving, and that the earthquake has stopped as well.

"That's for wasting my time yesterday."

"Ah! You broke it! You broke my dolly!" Mimmie yells. Mimmie gets up from her spot in the corner and runs to pick up the doll, cradling the headless body in her arms. "Sis, this is no time to be crying over a doll, I just saved your life! You should be thankful you know!" Mimmie ignores Ninten as she quietly sobs over her broken doll. Her tears are short lived however, as she notices something odd about the doll. Before Ninten can leave the room, Mimmie stops him and yells, "Hey big bro! Look at this!" Ninten turns around and sighs, "What is it?" he says. "There's a door on the belly of my dolly!" Mimmie yells. "Wait what?" Ninten replies. Ninten walks over to Mimmie, crouching down to about Mimmie's height as she passes him the doll. Indeed, the doll had some kind of hatch on its belly, that Ninten never remembered being there. "Open it! Open it!" Mimmie calls out. Ninten chooses to comply, "Okay, okay, sheesh." he responds. Ninten slowly lifts the hatch open revealing a wooden box with a metal turning handle.

"What is it?"

"I think it's a music box."

"Ooooooh! Play it! Play it!"

"Okay fine!"

Ninten grabs the music box from the dolls stomach and places it on the ground. He grabs the handle and starts to turn it. The music box lets out a soft melody that only last a second or two before stopping.

Ninten remembered the melody...


	3. A Special Phone Call

"Mom!"

Ninten runs downstairs as fast as he reasonably could, realizing he had forgotten about the safety of his mother in the heat of the moment. Ninten makes it down stairs to find his mother picking herself up from the ground with the knob on the front door. "Mom!" Ninten yells out in relieved manner. As soon as she notices him, Ninten and his mother run towards each other for a warm embrace that only lasts for about a minute.

"Ninten! Are you alright?"

"Yes mom, I'm fine."

"Good, I had a feeling you would be, you've always been such a strong young boy."

"Er, thanks."

"What about your sisters?"

"Their fine too, you know mental scarring aside."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Er, maybe we should sit down for this one."

Both Ninten and his mother proceed to take their seats across from each other. "There wasn't just an earthquake, there was something else." Ninten says in a serious tone. "Well spit it out already!" the mother yells.

"But you won't believe me…"

"If you're making such a big deal out of it, I don't see why you would be lying."

"I guess you're right."

"Well then tell me!"

Ninten hesitates for a moment, but eventually he is able to compose himself. "S-some of our stuff… came to life. I swear! I saw it with my own eyes! Ask Minnie and Mimmie, they saw it too! You believe me right?" Ninten is nearly out of breath when he finishes, triggering him to grab his inhaler from his pocket. "Oh Ninten, as ridiculous as you sound, I think I'm inclined to believe you. What on earth could be happening to our house?" the mother responds. "Do you think it was a ghost?" Ninten asks shyly.

"Well considering all the psychic talk I've been hearing recently, I wouldn't be surprised if one of them had something to do with it!"

"But our town is so small, and everyone seems so nice, who would do this?"

"That's what I want to figure out. It's times like this where I wish your father was here."

Almost as if on the cue, the phone began to ring. It was a black, rotary phone that sat atop an equally black set of drawers the lied in the corner by the front door. "Telephone! Ninten, can you get it?" the mother asks. "No problem." Ninten replies. Ninten rises from his seat to get the phone, and from the other side of the line, he hears a familiar voice.

"Hello?"

"Dad?"

"Ninten! I was hoping it would be you. How are you?"

"Er, fine I guess. The events of this morning might not help that though."

"Why? What happened?"

"Well, uh, how should I start?"

"From the beginning, probably."

"That makes sense."

Ninten proceeds to recount the mornings events to his father, and he gave his undivided attention. "Well… it seems to me like you've got a poltergeist on your hands." the father says. "Well, do you know anyway we could get rid of it?" Ninten asks. "Well it sounds like to me you've already takes care of that part," the dad responds, "but if one comes back you might be on your own."

"Come on dad, there's gotta be something we else we can do!"

"Er, well, there may be one other way."

"Really? What is it?"

The father let out a loud sigh, "Truth be told son, we've never really been a normal family. Your great-grandfather actually studied PSI."

"You mean like, psychic powers?"

"Yes exactly, if I recall, his old notebook should be somewhere in the basement. If your willing to take the risk, you can use that notebook and maybe develop some powers of your own."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down there. Why did you never tell me this?"

"I didn't think you were ready, considering the stigma psychics have. Honestly, I still don't think you're ready, but now isn't the time to be concerned about readiness, now is the time to think about survival. Heh, I sound way too serious don't I?"

"Er, not at all."

"Good! Now you should know, you can't just use your powers all willy-nilly, PSI abilities put great mental strain on those who use them. If you want to defend yourself, you need to learn how to properly control your powers, and that would require some professional training, or a lot of trial and error."

"Well I doubt I can get any professional training around here…"

"Didn't think so. Son, if you truly want to harness these powers, be my guest, but you may need to find a safe environment to practice."

"Are you saying I should leave home?"

"Not exactly, but if that's necessary, I won't stop you. Ninten, it's time for you to go on a little adventure. I want you to know I'm behind you one hundred percent. You still have the debit card I gave you, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Good, I'll deposit money into your account from time to time. Now good luck, cause I gotta go!"

"Wait! Dad!"

Before Ninten could finish, his father had already hung up. He was still trying to process everything he had been told. "(I… have powers, or do I? What did he mean when he said I should leave home? Why did he never tell me my great granddad studied PSI?)" all these thoughts cluttered Ninten's mind, so much so that he hadn't realized he was still holding the phone in his hand, and that his mother had been calling for him from the kitchen. "Hurry up young man, unless you don't want breakfast!" the mother calls. When he hears this, Ninten puts the phone down and runs towards the kitchen. Rather than sit down at the table and wait for his food, Ninten asks his mother, "Where's the key to the basement?" "What? How should I know?" the mother responds, "Chances are your father took it with him." "Crap!" Ninten yells out as he runs out of the kitchen, before he can head upstairs, his mother yells at him, "Where do you think you're going mister!?" "To find the basement key!" Ninten responds. "Well you better find whatever it is you need from there before I finish cooking!" the mother yells. Ignoring his mother, Ninten heads upstairs, when he makes it up, he sees his two sisters leaving their rooms, presumably for breakfast. "Minnie! Mimmie! Have either of you seen the key to the basement?" Ninten asks. "No, why?" the sisters say in unison. "I just need to look for something, okay? Are you sure neither of have seen it?" Both girls ponder the question for a moment, before one of them finally responds. "Is it the weird stick thing with a handle?" Minnie asks. "Uhh, yes...?" Ninten replies, slightly confused.

"Oh that thing! I thought it was for a pretty necklace, so I put on Prince's collar!"

"Thanks Minnie. I'll be back okay, so you two better save some food for me!"

"Okay big bro!" the sisters call out, as Ninten runs downstairs.

Ninten runs all the way down stairs and bust the front door open, once again causing him to have to pull out his inhaler. He turns to his right to find an old dog house, made from wood. The dog house was entirely painted white and featured a blue metal plate with the name "Prince" inscribed into it. "Hey, Prince! Come here boy!" Ninten calls out to no avail. Ninten walks towards to the dog house and crouch's down to get a better look inside. Inside the dog house, was a dog with entirely white fur and a blue collar, sleeping peacefully. The dog wouldn't wake up, it would simply lie there, it's breath occasionally blowing away a blade of grass or two. Hanging from the collar was an old, rusty key, attached only by a thin piece of string. Ninten reaches out and grabs the key, pulling it off the collar with a single yank. After pocketing the key, Ninten heads back inside the house and turns towards the right to find a door that had been locked for as long as he could remember. Questioning whether the key would fit, Ninten decides to shove the key into the lock and hope it would work. The key manages to fit into the lock and as Ninten turns the key and then the knob, the door to the basement slowly creaks open. "What on earth are you doing!?" Ninten realizes his mother has been standing behind him ever since he entered the house.

"Uh… nothing."

"Just get whatever it is you need and hurry up, your food is getting cold."

"I'll be back soon, okay?"

"Just go already!"

Ninten turns back around to face the doorway. The path leading to the basement was nothing more than a wooden staircase. The staircase appeared to be moist and rotting, yet somehow stable enough to be walked on. Practically no light was emanating from the basement, the staircase appeared to lead a black, bottomless void. Thankfully, a white light switch lied to the left of Ninten, and flipping it caused a dim light to fill the basement. After standing at the doorway for a full minute, Ninten finally works up the courage to walk down the staircase, with every step down giving off a load creaking sound. After what seemed like an eternity, yet in reality only being about a minute, Ninten makes it to the bottom of the basement. The basement was fairly empty, containing nothing more than a single shelf filled with seemingly empty boxes. One box stood out from the others, a cardboard box colored a light shade of pink with the word "Memories" written with a black marker. Ninten cautiously approached the box, almost expecting something to jump out at him. His hand slowly reached for the lid of the box, but before he can touch it, a rat suddenly crawls out from inside the box, causing him to jump back. The rat scurried from the box, down the shelf, to the inside of a small hole in wall. After getting his bearings straight, Ninten decides to throw caution to the wind and just grab the box from the shelf as fast as he could. The box had a thin layer of dust on it that seemed to stick to Ninten's hands. He held the box in one hand and lifted the lid with the other, dropping it to the ground shortly after. Inside the box were many odd objects, a blue witch hat, a strange disk like object with a glowing red light and tentacle like objects protruding from the sides, a crude drawing of what appeared to be a man and woman with strange characters written on it, and a small, worn out notebook with a leather cover. Ninten quickly pulls out the notebook with his one free hand and lets it fall open. On the inside of the back cover, a message is written, "If found please return to George." Ninten closes the notebook and shoves it in his pocket and grabs the lid of the box back of the ground. Ninten places the lid back on the box and takes the box back to the shelf. Before he leaves, Ninten notices a plastic baseball bat to his right leaning on the wall, he decides to take it with him. Ninten walks back up the stairs and is nearly blinded by the difference in lighting from the basement to the living room. Ninten heads into the kitchen to find his family eating without him. "There you are Ninten! Well I hope you like cold pancakes, cause that's all your getting mister!" the mothers yells. Ninten walks up to his mother and pulls out the notebook from his pocket and slams it on the table.

"Mom, did you know about this?"

"What? What is that?"

"It's great-granddad's old notebook, he studied PSI."

"What ? Who told you that?"

"Dad. Didn't he ever tell you?"

"No! I swear the nerve of that man, what is there anything else that he's been hiding from me?"

"Not that I know of."

"Hmph! Good! Now what do you plan on doing with that thing anyway?"

"Reading it, so I can develop powers."

"Now why on earth would you ever want to do that?"

"So I can protect you! So I can protect Minnie and Mimmie! What if something like what happened today happens again!?"

"Then we leave this house and let it crumble to the ground! I'd much rather have that than watch my son destroy his own mind!"

Ninten grabs the notebook and storms out of the kitchen. "You come back here with that notebook mister!" the mother yells out. Ninten heads up to his room, ignoring his mother. He drops his bat and grabs his book bag, opening it and throwing its contents onto the ground. Ninten fills the backpack with various goods in his room, those being a map of Eagleland, a debit card that had been sitting on a set of drawers, and the notebook he previously held in his hand. After putting on his backpack and grabbing his bat off the ground, Ninten storms out of his room and to the front door, until he is stopped by his mother that is. "Hold it right there young man! Where on earth do you think you're going?" the mother yells, just before Ninten's hand reaches the door knob. "Far away from here is where I'm going," Ninten yells out angrily, "I'm gonna go out there train myself! When I come back I'll be so powerful, we won't have to worry about poltergeists again!"

"I will absolutely not allow this!"

"You can't stop me! When I come back, I'll be able to protect you all, you'll see!"

"Get back here Ninten!"

Ninten quickly turns around and opens the front door, storming out of the house soon after. "Ninten! You come back here, you hear me!? Ninten!" the mother calls out. Ninten ignores his mother. Before his mother could even realize it, Ninten was gone and out of sight. The mother simply stood in the doorway and stood in complete shock over what had happened, it was as if her whole world was crumbling down. Ninten, her own son, in seemingly an instant, went from being a thoughtful young boy, to a rebellious teenager. "Mommy?" the mother turns around to see her two remaining children standing in front of her. "Will big bro be back soon?" they ask in unison. "Trust me, sooner or later he'll come back to his senses and be back before nightfall," the mother replies, "now you two go on up to your rooms, I have to make a phone call." "Okay…" the sisters reply.

The mother slams the front door shut and heads to the phone in the corner, to call a number she had not called in many years. It isn't long before someone answers the call.

"This is Gerald speaking."

"Gerald, you and I need to talk."

"Carol? Sweetie, it's been ages since I've talked to you!"

"Don't you call me that!"

"Whoa, calm down. Look I'm busy right now, so whatever it is you want just say it now."

"What the hell did you say to that boy!?"

"You mean Ninten? What about it?"

"I'll tell you what! He ran away from home babbling about using his great-grandfather's notebook to develop psychic powers!"

"What? He actually found it?"

"So you did tell him about it!"

"Listen Carol, I didn't mean for this to happen. I never expected him to leave home like this! All I told him was that if he wanted powers, he could very well learn some, and that he shouldn't use them in the house."

"Don't you lie to me Gerald! It's because of you that my boy has ran off to who knows where so he can get himself killed!"

"Well maybe you should've raised him better!"

"Maybe you should have been around for him when he was younger so that he wouldn't have ended up like this!"

Silence, not one reply. Carol stood there waiting for Gerold to say something, but he said nothing. Gerold hung up a minute later, and Carol slammed the phone back in its place in response. Exhausted from all the yelling she had done that day, Carol collapsed into one of the chairs in the living room. Carol simply sat there, unmoving, not knowing what to do, before eventually growing tired and drifting into a deep sleep.

Meanwhile while Ninten begins a strange adventure, one that would last much longer than expected.


	4. A Strange Crow

Ninten had left his home in a fit of rage, but with good intentions. Where he would go, that had not been decided. All he knew is that he would get stronger, and he would do what he thought was necessary in order to find that strength. Currently, Ninten walks the dirt road to town with his plastic bat in hand. "(I don't need them, I don't need anyone! I'll come back stronger than any of them could even imagine, and I'll do it all by myself! Then maybe, I can protect them…)" Ninten thinks to himself.

For a while things are calm and Ninten almost feels at peace, that doesn't last long though. Suddenly, Ninten's walk is interrupted when he realizes his hat has seemingly disappeared from his head. "(What the hell? I just had it on a minute ago…)" Ninten thinks to himself. His train of thought is interrupted when a crow suddenly swoops by and attempts to grab Ninten's scarf. The crow places its feet on Ninten's chest and pulls at his scarf with its beak. Ninten grabs the crow with both and attempts get it off of his chest, dropping his bat in the process. He manages to remove the crow with little damage to his scarf. Ninten notices that the crow was actually wearing a red cap, one that was very similar to his. Realizing the cap is in fact his, Ninten removes the cap from the crow's head and swiftly places it on his own. With both hands, Ninten chucks the crow into the air, which doesn't do much, as the crow starts flapping its wings and flying down to stay at an equal level with Ninten. The crow seemed a bit odd, as it was wearing red sneakers, and one of its wings was slightly folded. Strangely enough the crow was actually carrying a lit cigarette it its folded wing, and even stranger, the crow lands on the ground so it can place the cigarette in its mouth and start smoking it. "(This definitely isn't normal… could the poltergeist have something to do with this? Probably not, this seems like the work of something entirely.)" Ninten thinks to himself. The crow simply stands on ground smoking away, Ninten catches it off guard by kicking it out of the way. The crow lands on the ground near a tree, giving Ninten time to pick up his bat. The crow swiftly recovers and begins soaring into the air and starts dive-bombing towards Ninten. The crow extends its claws forward and digs them into Ninten's right cheek, causing him to yell in pain. Ninten punches the crow off his face, and then proceeds to wildly swing his bat around, only manning to hit the crow one other time. Rather than retaliate, the crow simply flies off into the distance, leaving Ninten to attempt to care for his wound.

"Gah! Since when did crows start doing crap like this?" Ninten exclaims, "How am I gonna patch this up?" It's at this moment Ninten has an idea, he removes his backpack and from it, he pulls out his great-grandfather's notebook and starts skimming through it. "(There's gotta be something here on healing…)" Ninten thinks to himself. Eventually, Ninten finds a page that catches his interest, it reads as follows. "PSI Lifeup: an ability that allows its user to instantly heal wounds of their own or others. The user must close their eyes, place their middle and index finger on wound, and channel their mental energy into healing wound, the more energy, the more efficient the healing is." "(Uh… I don't know what a lot of this means, but I guess I'll try it…)" Ninten thinks to himself.

Ninten closes his eyes and with his left hand, he places his middle and index finger on his cheek, and attempts to focus his thoughts on healing his wound. After a few seconds, the wound beings to heal slowly. During the process, Ninten's fingers give off a faint, but warm green glow. The wound heals after about 30 seconds, leaving no signs of any scar. Ninten removes his fingers from his cheek and opens his eyes, feeling an odd sense of tranquility after doing so. Ninten feels his cheek with his hand and notices that his wound has completely healed.

Ninten realized the power of PSI Lifeup.


	5. Podunk

Ninten continues his trek down the dirt path to Podunk's more urban area, this time with a new trick up his sleeve. The road itself was surrounded by nothing more than a few trees, and a river, the sounds of which helped Ninten achieve some peace of mind. The path wasn't without its dangers though, although really most of them aren't worth the trouble of going into great detail. Just a couple of snakes and crows that went down with a few swings of a bat. The sudden hostility of Podunk's animals did catch Ninten off guard however. "(Jeez, with all these wild animals, dads poltergeist theory is starting to fall apart.)" Ninten thinks to himself.

Ninten knew his journey would soon be over though, as a single house that stood in its place for as long as he could remember, was what he often used to mark the distance to town. What Ninten never knew however, was who lived in the house, until now that is. Outside the house was a lady with long, bright pink hair and an equally pink dress, walking in circles and nervously biting her nails. Ninten almost felt compelled to talk to her, wishing to know what troubled her so. "Uh, excuse me? Are you okay?" Ninten asks. The lady seemingly ignores him, and she begins rambling to herself, "Oh, what can I do? What should I do? Where can I go? Who can I see? What should I do? What should I do?" the lady seemed like she was about to run out of breath. "Woah, calm down! Just tell me what's wrong, maybe I can help!" Ninten replies. The lady replies almost instantly, "My little Pippi is gone! If your going to south Podunk, please tell the mayor! This is a situation that should concern the whole town! Earthquakes like this don't just happen out of nowhere!"

"Wait, you felt the earthquake too?"

"Yes of course I did! I felt it this morning! When I left my room the house was in shambles and my little Pippi was nowhere to be found!"

"(Woah, so other people have been experiencing this too… is this really the work of a poltergeist then?)" Ninten thinks to himself.

"Oh me oh my! What if she's lost? What if she's hurt? What if she's dead!?"

"Hey mam, calm down! I'll go tell the mayor right now okay?"

"Oh, just be safe, okay?"

"No problem!"

"(Maybe this whole Pippi thing will help me get stronger, especially with all these wild animals running around. Chances are this bat won't see a break anytime soon.") Ninten thinks to himself. Ninten continues his trek down to south Podunk, now only inches away. The first sight he's greeted to isn't exactly a pleasant one however. Right by the entrance of town is what appears to be a remains of a destroyed home. With a man in a bright red shirt and bright red pants looking down at the debris. "(Woah… what happened here?)" Ninten thinks to himself.

"Excuse me sir?"

"Hm?"

"Is this your home?"

"Yeah… did a poltergeist visit your home? One tore mine apart…"

"(Whatever's going on here isn't good… I need to get to the bottom of this.)"

Ninten chooses not to say anything and simply continues walking through town. As mentioned previously, Podunk is home to nothing more than a few houses and some small businesses. Even the town's city hall blended in with most of the other buildings, only standing out due to a sign marking it as such. Ninten enters the building to find nothing more than a single desk with a receptionist on the other side, filling out some kind of paperwork. She wore a red dress shirt, beige khakis, and black dress shoes. Ninten approaches the receptionist slowly, not wanting to be too much of a bother, "Uh, excuse me?" he says. The receptionist replies with a simple, "Hm?"

"Is there anyway I could talk to the mayor?"

"You wanna talk to the mayor?"

"Er, yeah."

"Well you must have something serious to report if a kid like you wants to talk to him. Why don't you head upstairs? He might just listen to you."

"Uh, thanks…"

Ninten awkwardly walks away from the desk and to the staircase on his left. Inside the room upstairs was a second desk with a man filling out some kind of paperwork on the other side. Along with it there were two chairs that sat across from each other and a small table in the bottom right corner. Sitting in one of the chairs was a fairly large man with black dress shoes, a blue business suit with a white button up shirt underneath, and an equally blue fedora. The man was sleeping, and snoring quite loudly for that matter. After standing in the room for about a minute, the secretary finally notices Ninten after looking up from his work.

"Who are you?"

"Uh… Ninten. I'm here to talk to the mayor."

"Huh, either you're really important, or the receptionist was really bored. Fine then, I'll wake him up."

The man got up from his chair, and it was now that Ninten was able to get a good look at him. The man wore black dress shoes, beige khakis, a blue dress shirt, and had blonde hair. The man walks up to the mayor, who is still sleeping, grabs his shoulders, and starts to shake him violently. Ninten simply stares with a puzzled look on his face, wondering if this was a normal scenario and if anything like this was even allowed. Suddenly, the mayor's eyes open, and he tries to remove his secretary's hands from his shoulders. "Okay I'm up! What is it this time?" the mayor yells.

"There's someone here to see you, sir."

"Well where are they?"

"In front of you, sir

"Eh?"

The mayor turns back around to see Ninten standing in front of him, who was attempting to keep his composure. The mayor turns back to the secretary, "What? This kid?" he asks. "Yes sir, you would be right." he replies. The mayor turns back around to face Ninten, straightening his back while doing so.

"So tell me, why are you here?"

"I'm here to report an incident."

"What you mean the earthquake that happened a bit ago? We all felt it kid, no one was hurt, and we only had one destroyed house, I think most of us are already over it."

"N-no, sir. There's something else."

"Well spit it out already!"

"Someone's gone missing! Her name is Pippi. Her mother told me all about it."

"Is that so? Well kid, I think you've come to the wrong place, you might want to check out the police department nearby."

"Sir, I think you of all people should know that our police force is pretty incompetent."

"Well you got me there kid, but what else are you supposed do?"

"Maybe I could do something about it!"

"You? Hah! Don't make me laugh! What's a kid like you gonna do? You're better off staying at home and pretending this never happened!"

"Please sir! I can help! I swear!"

"Look kid, I get it you want to help find this girl and… hm. Hold on kid let me think about this."

"Uh, okay."

The mayor gets out of his chair and walks towards the window behind him. "(Well the kid's got a point about our police force, and a missing child isn't gonna help that stigma. If they don't find that girl, my chances at getting re-elected are thrown out the window. Maybe this kid can help out after all, heh heh heh!)" the mayor thinks to himself. The mayor turns back to face Ninten, this time with a devilish grin on his face. "Alright kid, I'll let you help out!" the mayor exclaims, "Just try not to get yourself killed! Who knows, maybe I'll even be a hero! Uh, I mean, maybe you'll be a hero, heh heh!"

Ninten wasn't paying attention to most of what he was saying, all he knew is that now it was his duty to find Pippi and return her home safely. "Thank you, sir! I'll do my best!" Ninten exclaims as he storms out of room. "Woah! Easy there kid! I said not to get killed!" the mayor calls out. By that point Ninten had already left the building and was heading to the nearby department store to prepare himself for the journey ahead.


	6. INTERMISSION 1

"How is the boy doing?"

"Well… shockingly well. I thought a snake or a two would be enough to deal with him."

"I'm telling you boss, you should have checked to see if they were venomous."

"Hmph. Maybe you're right."

"You know, why don't we just send all our strongest troops to deal with him right now?"

"Because this is a stealth mission! We only send them in when absolutely necessary! The humans must not know of our existence, to them, were nothing but myths and rumors."

"So what if they find out about our existence? We could wipe them out easily!"

"Maybe, but the survivors will only get stronger, we don't want to be driven back by such a low species a second time."

"I guess you got a point there, but maybe you could be a bit snappier about this whole operation?"

"Silence! A lowbie like you shouldn't even be here right now! Go and make yourself useful somewhere else!"

"Woah. Sir, calm down. I was just making a suggestion!"

"Didn't you hear me! Get out of here!"

"Alright, alright, sheesh! You've gotten so much angrier recently, what's with that?"

"This mission can not fail! It's bad enough that the humans are well aware of the existence of PSI! If that notebook falls into the wrong hands, all of humanity will gain access to PSI abilities! The humans will misuse their powers and potentially destroy us along with themselves!"

"Woah, that's heavy."

"Enough! Leave my presence and do you whatever you can to stop that boy!"

"Sir, yes sir!"


End file.
